A typical arrangement of beams, bearings and slats in a reciprocating slat conveyor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870, granted Feb. 13, 1990, to Raymond K. Foster, and entitled Reciprocating Floor Conveyor With Snap-On Floor Members. Longitudinal guide beams that support the bearings are designated 14 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870 (FIG. 1). The bearings are designated 122 in FIGS. 6-8. Special hold-down members are designated 80 (FIGS. 9-13). The bearings 122 are positioned on the guide beams 14 where the guide beams 14 cross over and are secured to transverse frame members 12. In this system, there are longitudinal spaces between the bearings 122 that are open and when the conveyor is used in a truck or trailer, water off the road can and will splash upwardly against the underneath sides of the conveyor slats in the open regions.
There is a need to substantially close the open regions so as to guard against the upward splash of road water against the underneath sides of the conveyor slats. It is a principal object of the present invention to address this need by the use of both old and new technology.
The old technology includes continuing the use of the transverse frame members, the longitudinal guide beams, and conventional conveyor slats. Examples of these components are disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,870.
The subject invention is an improvement on the system disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,957, granted Jul. 5, 1994, to Arthur Wilkens. U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,957 discloses the use of continuous bearings and states that a function of the bearings is to shield the upper bearing surfaces and the lower slat surfaces from liquids and solid materials splashing up from the road below the conveyor. The bearings disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,957 have narrow bases and they are secured to the longitudinal beams by the use of rivets. There is a need for a continuous bearing that will snap down and lock onto the guide beam and which will permit the floor slats to snap down on the bearings. It is an object of the invention to fill this need.
The subject invention takes a different approach to guarding against splash from U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,819 B1, granted May 10, 2005, to Raymond K. Foster, and from European application EP 1 524 212 A1, published Apr. 20, 2005, and filed by Hyva International B.V.